Chapter 9.
"So, what've I missed?" Jane enters the bullpen, a lot perkier than he was before.
Rigsby is standing beside the murder board, adding information on both of the suspects.
"We questioned the suspects," Rigsby informs him, "it's a shame that you weren't here, we could have used your sixth sense."
Jane chuckles before asking "Lisbon in her office?"
Rigsby nods, concentrating more on adding information than his conversation with the consultant. Jane heads for the office, whilst Cho joins Rigsby to compare his interview notes. Patrick gently taps on the door and waits to be summoned in by his partner.
"Come in," is the shout from the other side of the door.
Jane opens the door and peers around the corner to see Teresa at her desk, studying a file on her knee.
"Hey," Jane smiles, attracting her attention.
"Jane," Lisbon replies, "I didn't expect to see you here yet. How're you feeling?"
"Teresa," he begins, before walking in and closing the door behind him, "I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"Earlier," he sits opposite her in the chair.
"Look Jane, you have nothing to be sorry for," she tells him, "yesterday was rough. You deserve at least some time off."
"I'll be fine," Jane dismisses the thought of being absent from the case, "how did the interviews go with both of the suspects?" he quickly changes the subject.
Lisbon glances at him for a second, before updating him on the latest updates; "both of them have shaky alibis for the two murders, they both claim to be home alone in bed and they don't admit to owning the snake."
"What about contact with the victims?"
"Jennings claims that he buried the hatchet with James Tuffnull years ago, and that he hasn't seen him since high school," she replies, "but Kingston admits to seeing Harding on the street a few weeks ago, they had a quick talk and then went their separate ways, but nothing more than that. What strikes me as odd is…how did the killer find out about the domestic abuse? I doubt that the victims brought it up in conversation."
"There are other ways of telling; maybe the killer saw it in their eyes," Jane reasons, "you can tell a lot of things about a person through their eyes."
Teresa is automatically drawn to gaze into his, but she doesn't knowing that Jane doesn't want to tell her everything personal just yet. She lowers her head a few millimetres, hoping that he wouldn't try his technique out on her.
"A lot of this doesn't make much sense, we need to get all our facts together before we go any further," Lisbon tells him, putting the file on her desk.
"I saw Rigsby and Cho outside, but where's Van Pelt?"
"She went a couple of hours ago to check something out," Teresa responds, "come on, we need to get all this straightened out."
She heads out the office, Jane in tow. The board that Wayne was using before has been moved closer to the table, where he and Cho sit, each with a steaming cup of coffee beside them. They look up in unison and acknowledge Lisbon and Jane, before closing the files that they have been studying. Whilst Jane sits down, Lisbon studies the latest information that has been written on, in Wayne's handwriting.
"I can't believe neither of them lawyer'd up," Wayne starts.
"This guy believes that he is a cut above the rest, he's too smart to get a lawyer," Jane reasons.
"So, how do we catch him?" Cho pitches in.
"The man is clever; he has access to animal tranquilizers and he is physically strong," Jane counts on his fingers, "he thinks that he is invincible."
"Well, the only way to draw him out is to ignore him," Cho sighs, "but that won't save his final victim."
"Okay, so we work out who that is then," Jane smiles.
"You make it sound so easy," Lisbon turns her back to the board, "but how do we do that Jane? Warrants to search both homes would take ages to do, plus we're working against the clock here; it's impossible."
He leans back in his chair, before deciding it was a bad idea and sitting up straight again, "what do the victims have in common?"
"They're men, both domestic abusers, both live in Sacramento, they were killed with the same venom," Rigsby lists.
"Meredith Harding filed complaints against her husband for abuse," Cho adds.
"Did Tuffnull's wife do the same?" Jane intercepts.
Cho rushes to his computer to check, Teresa and Wayne follow.
"Yeah, a year ago, just a single complaint, they were living in New Jersey at the time, but it was retracted," Cho reads from off the screen.
"He promised that it would all change, probably told her that he'd change," Jane sadly admits the truth.
"That's how these are connected. Cho, can you see if either Jennings or Kingston was in that area at the time, maybe they got wind of it," Lisbon orders.
"On it," Cho replies.
"Rigsby, can you get hold of the officers on detail, see if there's been any movement."
Wordlessly, Wayne makes a beeline for his desk phone.
"What do you want me to do boss?" Jane asks with a cheeky grin on his face.
"You just hang tight for now."
Jane mulls it over before getting up and heads straight for the break room, Lisbon follows him, knowing that something is up.
"Do you want a coffee?" he asks.
"What is it?" she responds.
"What is what?"
"You know something."
"I know a lot of things," he points out, retrieving their cups from the cupboard.
"Jane, this is serious, what are you thinking?"
"This guy, like most serial killers, has a trigger; something that makes him wake up in the morning thinking 'today, I'm going to kill someone'," Jane replies.
"Okay, so, what is his?"
"He aims to kill those who beat their wives," Jane drops a teabag in his and shifts to the coffee pot, "my theory is that someone he loved was abused; a family member, his mother perhaps."
"His hatred towards his father drives him to kill," Lisbon realises, "he thinks that he's a superhero; the confidence to do what he likes, the mask…" she trails off.
"It all fits," Jane pours hot water onto his teabag, but stops when he sees Teresa's face, "what is it?"
"We did background checks on Jennings and Kingston," her voice is ghost-like, "neither of them came from an abusive background."